Europe's environment is in an alarming state, with climate change expected to further aggravate the situation. This poses severe threats to economic prosperity, human wellbeing and social peace – our society needs systemic transformative change. Ecosystem restoration is key to this change, and freshwaters play an important role: the restoration of streams, rivers, peatlands and wetlands has a long tradition and offers an extensive knowledge base – freshwaters are ideal demonstrators of the necessary change. The MERLIN project commits to transformative ecosystem restoration, mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions for the urgent systemic change of our society.
